A post shared by Johanna Konta (@johannakonta) on May 13, 2019 at 10:16am PDT

The second set was nip and tuck, with former US Open champion Stephens recovering an early break, but Konta forged ahead again to lead 5-4 and served it out to level the match.

Stephens had smashed her racket on the court in the opening set and thought about doing it again when Konta broke in the third game of the decider, and the American grew increasingly wayward as her opponent finished the match on a run of six games in a row.

Konta, whose only other top-10 win this season came against Stephens in Brisbane, will now try to reach the quarter-finals in the Italian capital for the first time having fallen in the third round for the last three years.